That’s incredibly helpful. Thanks. Edit: Pulled the trigger and got it arriving on Thursday (snow allowing), just in time for a week off work 
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Don’t have an AR (although gasing for one) but here are the strong points of DT for me:
- Sampling is fast and easy
- MIDI tracks (8) allow me to sequence my hardware easier than in any DAW
- ADDA converters are blowing me away. Sound is superb (too sterile for some of us)
-OB but I am not using it
-DT can turn itself in a ridiculous monstrous 8 voices mono synth https://youtu.be/dFQv6bW_40c - Polyrhythms
-Granular
As I said I am gasing for a deeper machine (ideally an analogue drum machine) but I do not think I would part with my DT as it really shines as a musical Swiss army knife. For me anyway.
Hope this helps
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As I am using my AR together with an OT, I don’t need more MIDI Tracks. I am loving the Sound-Engines on the AR. I am not a big fan of the hats, but everything else is really nice for my ears. Sometimes I mix in samples, but most of the time, its pure analog.
Love the Dual VCO for Bass and Leads too. Happens a lot, that I stick to only the Rytm for a full song.
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I am yet to experience the joy of the AR MK2 but I had an AR MK1 and really liked it. I’ve had a Digitakt in the past and currently own one again, and I find it the most inspiring piece of gear I’ve ever owned. I love the Analog instruments and scene performances of the Rytm, but I adore the crisp, deep sound of the Digitakt and incredible control-all functionality. For me the Digitakt rules but I wouldn’t be averse to owning the AR again, especially trying out a MK2.
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That’s great news 
. I hope you enjoy
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i hope you love it! i was gonna say, that’s the machine for you. as a guitarist i thought initially digitakt for quick happiness, but since you had a cycles that you loved made me thing hmmmm AR, but once you complained about song mode, i knew the AR2 would be for you. the op1 is my favorite instrument to sample from. report back how you like it!
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I’ve owned a Digitakt since it’s come out, though every now and then I take a long look at the RYTM MK II. No matter how I size it up however I basically just see a Digitakt with a drum synth attached to it. A nice drum synth, mind you, but not really worth an extra $1,000 for me. For that amount of money I’d rather just get something like a Tanzbar lite plus $600 worth of Japanese whiskey 
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But then you are not seeing kits, individual outputs, performances, scenes, analog filter and overdrive (different than DT, not better…), dedicated fx track, pads (I don’t finger drum, but I like to have mutes on something else than flashing sequencer steps).
If all those things doesn’t appeal to you, then why would you spend the money indeed.
I don’t use the analog engines (except for the toms once and a while), but for all this the AR is very different to handle than a DT. I prefer the AR over DT for my own music, and when improvising and jamming with a friend, I prefer the DT…
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Also plug a digitakt into a Boum or a Heat and you got analog sound from a digital box
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I wish the performance scenes were recordable into the rytm sequencer
Man oh man does the Digitakt sound great through the Heat.
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Having started messing around with it, there’s an awful lot of depth to explore I think what has surprised me just as a dabbler is the usefulness of the analog sounds sitting behind and blending with samples. The sound sculpting possibilities on the thing seem endless.
My other immediate impression? Mainly the shallow observation that its a stupendously big and heavy box when compared to the Samples or my OP1. Actually, it seems more like a bit of military control gear than any other bit of performance kit I’ve ever come across.
Choosing the AR to not use the analog engine is the wrong choice imho.
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FWIW, i just buckled and got a rytm mkii (after reading about it for a longggggg time) 
also, this video kind of made me.
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what other options are there for those other rytm features outside of the analog engine?
Digitakt of course, then Octatrack.
Depending on how you use the DT, the OT can be closer to the DT than the AR.
I choosed to upgrade my DT to the OT instead or AR for theses reasons:
Better sampling on the OT, it’s important for a sampler.
Slice grid
Resample quick and easy without saving to a file each time
Stereo samples
Better midi than AR (chords, arp, etc…)
And of course the crossfader to “play” the instrument
I don’t care about “sound quality”, I make shit track
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are you as fast on the octa as you are on the dt?
I love my dt, but I’ve also wanted the AR for a while, the way you can play those performances FX are so dope, only wish you could record them into the sequencer.
I just ordered it, not received it yet 
Go buy the AR if you want it.
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we’re too close to the next drop
yep, absolutely.
took a good while tho. DT is easier to get a grasp on initially as there’s much more possibilities in the OT.
I personally really got the hang of the elektrons on the DT.
having previously had MD, MnM, OT n A4 at different times, the simplicity of the DT for me made the whole thing click.
then going back to the larger boxes it was much easier. personally.
[also going back to the OT after DT I went with mk2 which I find a more fluid experience with the extra shortcut buttons. makes it much more user friendly imo]
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